Search plane hits tree on way down in WA

A search plane organised to rescue a man stranded in WA's remote goldfields got into trouble itself and hit a tree while making an emergency landing.

The flight was arranged when the man became stranded due to a flat battery about 1000km northeast of Perth on Thursday morning and alerted a friend using a GPS device.

Meanwhile, police from Leinster who were told about the situation contacted a mine site in the area and organised for a group of workers to go and rescue the man.

The plane arrived at the same time as the mine workers found the man in the early afternoon and so turned around to head to a nearby station.

An hour later the Australian Maritime Safety Authority's rescue co-ordination centre in Canberra contacted WA police because a personal locator beacon had been activated 7km from where the stranded man was found.

The mine site staff were then sent to look for the plane, which had electrical problems and hit a tree on the way down.

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Goldfields-Esperance Inspector Heath Soutar said both cases showed how important it was to carry some form of GPS-based emergency distress beacon in remote areas.

"Although the stranded driver and pilot used different types of emergency distress beacons, in both situations we were able to quickly identify exactly where they were via GPS co-ordinates and that meant we could focus our efforts on reaching them via the quickest route," he said.